Transfigurations: Modern Masters from the Wexner Family Collection

This fall, in celebration of our 25th anniversary, the Wexner Center for the Arts will mount an unprecedented exhibition of the personal collection of Leslie and Abigail Wexner. Transfigurations: Modern Masters from the Wexner Family Collection features an in-depth selection of paintings, sculptures, and drawings by Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, and Jean Dubuffet. With its concentrated focus on these three 20th-century virtuosos, along with additional works by Edgar Degas, Willem de Kooning and Susan Rothenberg, the Wexner Family Collection is truly incomparable to any other private collection formed over the last 50 years.

This will be the first-ever public exhibition of this remarkable collection—and the Wexner Center is the one and only venue where you can intimately experience these timeless treasures.

Learn more about visiting Transfigurations: Modern Masters from the Wexner Family Collection. 

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Guest curated by Robert Storr, professor and dean of the Yale University School of Art and former senior curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition and an accompanying catalogue will bring fresh perspective to these artists and examine the figurative impulses that connect them. "A collection of this caliber and magnitude requires rare discipline, passion, and discernment," Storr explains. "Those who take the opportunity to view and absorb it will count themselves incredibly lucky to have looked over the shoulder of such avid collectors."

Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin notes, “presenting the exquisitely focused Wexner family collection allows us to offer audiences—especially university students and scholars—an unparalleled look at some of the pioneering artists whose work in the first half of the 20th century transformed the cultural landscape of their time, and continues to resonate in our own. We are so grateful to Leslie and Abigail Wexner for providing this singular opportunity to illuminate the creative continuum between early 20th-century masters and contemporary artistic practice.”

ABOUT THE WEXNER FAMILY COLLECTION
"This is the ideal moment to celebrate the profound and continuing impact of the Wexner Center, a multidisciplinary laboratory for new ideas, creativity, and freedom of expression....Abigail and I are happy to share the collection that we have had the privilege and pleasure to live with every day."—Leslie H. Wexner

Chair of the Wexner Center Foundation Board of Trustees and Chairman and Founder of L Brands, Leslie H. Wexner began collecting art seriously in the mid-1970s, initially focusing on modern artists of the New York School, particularly Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning. With the purchase in 1986 of a significant work by Picasso, Wexner began a partnership with the art dealer Richard Gray, and since then, the Wexners purposefully began to look more intently at earlier modern masters, primarily collecting the exemplary work of Picasso, Giacometti, and Dubuffet. The collection reflects a coherence of vision and passion for quality of the highest order.